Mar 7, 2014

Social Media: Going Beyond Online Company Presence

Companies are starting to use social media to set strong online presence. Since most people today use social media in their everyday lives, companies see this as a mean to improve their sales and brand awareness. To get better mileage from social media, let us look at how it is used beyond building online presence.

Social Media Improves Brand Management

Brand awareness is important for any company and social media is a good tool to achieve this. Since online communication is fast, you can easily reach to target markets to showcase your products and services. Combine it with traditional marketing strategies, brand management through social media becomes more effective. According to 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, a significant 89% of businesses who used social media platforms as part of their marketing strategy gets more exposure among their audience. In result 75% of these companies gained increase in web traffic, and 50% of them boost their sales.

Social Media is a Tool for PR and Advertising

Are you planning a public relation or advertising plan for your company? You might want to incorporate social media to your strategies. Social media guarantees infinite possibilities. Whether you want to invite people to an event or showcase a new product, these can help you reach to millions of people.

If you are creative enough, you can create shareable contents that can go viral. In social media, sharing is so easy. That is why it is the fastest way to connect to people and promote your company. In a study by Hubspot, photos get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more click-through. In other words, if you want more exposure and user engagement, posting quality photos is effective.

Social Media for Market Research

Social media platforms are used for marketing strategies. Little do people know, they can also be used to study their market. The idea is to use its real-time functions for a quick and efficient research. In traditional research methods, it takes months to study a sample or group. Plus, it takes a lot of money to utilize such study. Social media helps you slash the expenses and makes the process faster. You can use hashtags to see how people react to trends. You can also analyze which posts gets better response from your readers. Download social media analytic tools to help you study your online market.

Social Media Improves Customer Relation

Strong customer relation is important to keep brand image positive. You do not want people saying bad things about your company only because you didn't answer their questions and concerns. Remember word-of-mouth in social media spreads fast like a wild fire. It is very dangerous. Before you get burned, you have to knit strong relationship with your followers. Big companies like Jetstar and Nike wisely use social media to support complaints to their products and services. Nike even opened an account exclusive for customer service. Here are few things to remember when managing your social media accounts:

Respond Quickly

Be Available 24/7

Give Viable Solutions and Suggestions

Make things Easy for Your Customers to Complain

Do not be afraid of negative feedback. Actually, responding to them improves your brand identity and customer satisfaction.

Social Media for Education and Information Dissemination

More than 80% of people who has internet connection owns Facebook or Twitter accounts and with proper ways, you can easily send them information about your company and/or related topics. Connecting to them is fast and you can even target specific people to make the information dissemination effective. You can use hashtags to group same information. Hashtags help followers to collate related updates they want to read.

There are tons of social media platforms that you can use for your company. You have to learn how these platforms work to be able to use them efficiently in your strategies. Social media is a very effective tool in connecting your company to your target market. By knowing how social media is used beyond creating online presence, you can help step up the your business and boost your sales.

Author's Bio:
Maddy Bertelsen is a blogger, and journalist. She has been writing for several corporate newletters. Currently, she is writing for best essays uk. She dreams of publishing her own novel.